William Augustus Bowles
Encyclopedia
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
-born English adventurer and organizer of Native American attempts to create their own state outside of Euro-American control. He is also affectionately called Billy Bowlegs, although there is no evidence that he ever used that name himself.
Some sources give his date of birth as 1764. Bowles was born in Frederick County, Maryland
Frederick County, Maryland
Frederick County is a county located in the western part of the U.S. state of Maryland, bordering the southern border of Pennsylvania and the northeastern border of Virginia. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 233,385....
. He joined the British Army at the age of 13, and served with the Maryland Loyalist Battalion as an ensign during the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
. He went with the battalion when it was ordered to part of the garrison of Pensacola. Upon arrival, and as he was an officer, Bowles resigned his commission, and left the fortifications. He was captured by Indians from the Creek Nation.
While living with the Creek Nation, Spanish naval forces with soldiers embarked upon their ships, began to attack British forts along the Gulf Coast. Bowles convinced the Creeks to support the British garrison of Pensacola against the Spaniards, but the garrison fell when its powder magazine was hit by artillery fire from the Spanish ships. The survivors of the garrison were captured, but Bowles escaped into the wilderness with his Creek allies. This occurred May 9, 1781, when Bowles was either 16 or 17 years old.
He would marry two wives, one Creek (the chief's daughter) and the other Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
, and become heir to the Creek chiefdom. In one of the bizarre twists that makes Bowles so interesting, after this battle, he was reinstated in the British Army, and went to the Bahamas. After a few months in the Bahamas, the British governor Lord Dunmore, sent Bowles back among the Creeks with a charge to establish a trading house among them. Bowles established a trading post along the Chattahoochee River
Chattahoochee River
The Chattahoochee River flows through or along the borders of the U.S. states of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers and emptying into Apalachicola Bay in the Gulf of...
.
Pursuing his idea of an American Indian state after the end of the Revolutionary War, he was received by George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
as 'Chief of the Embassy for Creek and Cherokee Nations' and it was with British backing that he returned to Florida.
In 1795, along with the Seminoles, he formed a short-lived state
Sovereign state
A sovereign state, or simply, state, is a state with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states. It is also normally understood to be a state which is neither...
in northern Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
known as the "State of Muskogee
State of Muskogee
The State of Muskogee was a proclaimed sovereign nation located in Florida, founded in 1799 and led by William Augustus Bowles, a Loyalist veteran of the American Revolutionary War who lived among the Muscogee, and envisioned uniting the American Indians of the Southeast into a single nation that...
", with himself as its "Director General", and in 1800, declared war on Spain. Bowles operated two schooners and boasted of a force of 400 frontiersmen, former slaves, and warriors.
A furious Spain offered $6,000 and 1,500 kegs of rum for his capture, and when he finally was captured, he was transported to Madrid where he was unmoved by Charles IV of Spain
Charles IV of Spain
Charles IV was King of Spain from 14 December 1788 until his abdication on 19 March 1808.-Early life:...
's attempts to make him change sides. He then escaped, commandeering a ship and returning to the Gulf of Mexico. One of the main victims of his piracy was the trading firm of Panton, Leslie & Company
Panton, Leslie & Company
Panton, Leslie & Company was a company of Scottish merchants active in trading in the Bahamas and with the Indians of what is now the Southeastern United States during the late 18th century and early 19th century....
.
In 1803, not long after having declared himself 'Chief of all Indians present' at a trial council, he was betrayed and turned over to the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and died in prison in Havana two years later, having refused to eat.
The modern-day Billy Bowlegs Pirate Festival
Billy Bowlegs Pirate Festival
The annual Billy Bowlegs Pirate Festival is held in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The festival honors the local pirate legend, and is unrelated to the Seminole chief Billy Bowlegs. Similar to Mardi Gras, the festival consists of a parade, fireworks, and associated celebrations.The festival originated...
in Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Fort Walton Beach is a city in southern Okaloosa County, Florida, United States. As of 2005, the population estimate for Fort Walton Beach was 19,992, and as of 2010, the population estimate for Fort Walton Beach is 19,507 recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau...
, is named after him.
External links
- The Destruction of Muskogee Autonomy Before the Creek War by Adam Oliver
- http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~cmamcrk4/pkt26.html#anchor1986014
Le Clerc Milfort's Travels & Sojourn in the Creek Nation
- http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~cmamcrk4/mlfrttoc.html#anchor2466429
- Short bio of Bowles
- FOTW Site on the Muskogee Flag
- State of Florida history site
- Fort St. Marks - official site